You don’t have to be a seasoned filmgoer to know that the best sports movies are not really about the sports. This story dials that concept up to 11. True story: Marty Reisman (called Marty Mauser here) was an American table tennis champ of the late forties and early fifties. He was also a hustler and a showman. And kind of a prick.

This amoral character study is loosely based on how he cajoled, scammed and swindled his way into the world championships (in Tokyo). The man is not at all likeable. He’s obnoxious, manipulative and solipsistic. You may find yourself rooting against him!

Director Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) has taken this colorful story and created an electrifying movie that’s nothing short of a game changer, one that will inevitably be studied (and copied) in the coming years. He takes big, daring swings, and usually connects. This is guerrilla filmmaking.

Timothee Chalamet is a talented actor who often comes very close to disappearing into the many meaty roles he manages to land. Personally, not even in my top five. That said, I have to hand it to him for so eagerly and capably keeping up with this director’s kinetic pace. I have rarely seen a more committed performance, career-best and Oscar-worthy. (He was considered the front- runner for the Best Actor statuette until his recent asinine comments about the irrelevance of opera and ballet, showing an apparently hidden extra talent for self-sabotage.)

Gwynneth Paltrow shines as a faded movie star, and Odessa A’zion gives the film the humanizing it badly needs. The occasionally anachronistic soundtrack shouldn’t work, but it does. (149 min)